..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

September 7 , 2004

E-mail From The Dude

Important - Please Read - George Butler's John Kerry Film At Toronto Film Festival
by Jeff Dowd

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I would like to encourage you to see George Butler's GOING UPRIVER: THE LONG WAR OF JOHN KERRY at the Toronto International Film Festival.

This is not some Kerry puff piece-and while it is about Kerry in large part -it is about much more-a little background:

30 years ago, when Gerald Ford and his cohorts were trying to rewrite the history of the Vietnam War, I dropped everything I was doing to make sure people saw "HEARTS AND MINDS" -let me tell you why on very personal terms.

In 1965, when I was a junior in high school, a friend, (I'll refer to as Sam) was a senior, was caught joy riding in a car. The judge gave Sam the choice: "Go to jail or join the service." Sam joined the US Marines Corps. A few months later he returned from basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina, looking great--all buffed out in his uniform. I can still remember all the guys and especially the girls gathering around Sam when he arrived at a party.

Sam had indeed gone from being a charismatic juvenile delinquent to a young man starting to resemble a responsible adult-- he was one of "the Few, the Proud, the Marines" with their slogan "Semper Fidelis" or "Semper Fi"-- "Always Faithful." Pretty powerful stuff for a bunch of impressionable young guys. Even though we listened to the Rolling Stones and even Dylan-not "Blowing in the Wind" but "Rainy Day Women #35") as we cruised in Billy's 1963 red and white two tone Chevy Impala convertible with a 327 cubic inch engine with a 4 barrel - and sang along "I can't get no Satisssfaction" and "Everybody must get stoned" -we saw the Marines as a way to do something together that would overcome our alienation and allow us to bond together while fighting for democracy and freedom and stopping the spread of communism especially--from China, that's what we had been told by our leaders and the media.

Within months, dozens of seniors from our high school went to the nearby Marine Recruiting station and signed up to go Vietnam. I went there too and met with the recruiter and told him I would be back when I graduated high school.

Sam, Billy, his brother, Jim, and most of our friends all went to Vietnam. One close friend, George, died within months. Many were injured. It didn't take long for these very same Marines to start writing home about how they had been duped when they signed up to go to Nam to fight for democracy and discovered they were backing corrupt dictators whose own people in South Vietnam didn't support them. They believed their commanders were clueless-both the Generals in Nam and the ones in the Pentagon, Department of Defense and the White House in Washington. These Marines made sure none of their younger brothers or anybody, including me, back at our high school went to Vietnam-these young United States Marines were the first and most passionate anti-war people I ever encountered.

So you see why I can relate and understand how people like John Kerry can enlist and go to Vietnam and then have a change of heart and come back and make the very difficult decision to join the antiwar movement because he felt it was the right thing to do, the most patriotic thing to do and the thing to do that supported our troops-help them come home from an unjust and unwinnable war ASAP. It is so sad and disturbing that Kerry is being attacked through manipulative TV ads and called unpatriotic for opposing the Vietnam War. It's about so much more than Kerry-it's also about understanding history and having an informed public.

Nixon, who pledged in 1968 to end the Vietnam War if elected, went on to prolong the War for another 5 years saying "I don't want to be the first American President to lose a war." This is the very same Nixon who on February 21, 1972 traveled to China and cut a deal with the Chinese on behalf of US capitalism while still conducting the Vietnam War which was supposedly to stop the spread of communism. This deal could have been cut with the Chinese Communists and the Vietnamese National Liberation Front in South Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh in North Vietnam in 1968 and for that matter in 1961 by President Kennedy and sparred 50,000 American lives and millions of Vietnamese. That's what real leaders would have and should have done!

Even though it was the last thing I wanted to do in my life, I got more involved in the anti-war movement, and thanks to Nixon, Mitchell and that gang became one of the Seattle Seven and went to jail.

So that's why I dropped everything to help make sure people saw HEARTS AND MINDS because I didn't want to see my friends and other innocent people have to pay the price for a war based on misinformation.

And that is why, a few months ago, when I was asked by George Butler to help out on his film GOING UPRIVER: THE LONG WAR OF JOHN KERRY -- once again I dropped everything. The stakes are too high--especially considering what the SWIFT BOAT VETS FOR TRUTH and all the Bush campaign's Kerry bashing are doing and even worse-- rewriting history once again. You will get a follow-up e mail my friend Deane Rink wrote entitled "Why the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth Are Not That Swift and Not That Truthful" which I will send you shortly.

Nixon was the first GOP President to use the bitterness of John O'Neill to attack John Kerry. First recruited by Charles Colson, O'Neill (the founder of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth) is now doing the bidding of Karl Rove and George W. Bush. I honestly believe if people see GOING UPRIVER: THE LONG WAR OF JOHN KERRY it will help them put both Kerry's character and the history of wars fought under false premises in perspective.

In order for people to properly function in a democracy they need to have proper information. I believe when you see GOING UPRIVER: THE LONG WAR OF JOHN KERRY you will agree that it will help people make more informed decisions about who they want to vote for president and what to consider before we ever go to war. In order to have the positive future we all want - we can not misrepresent the history of the past or the reality of the present.

Thanks for your time,

Jeff Dowd

The Dude abides!

(Mr. Dowd Also Sent Along This Piece By Deane Rink On The Swiftboat Veterans For Truth)